Daybreak
by M-Angel 05
Summary: The Final Battle for earth was ongoing when suddenly a strange light engulfed not just earth, but the entire galaxy. Follow Grunt and the others on a mission of their own to find Shepard.
1. Chapter 1: Grunt

**Chapter 1: ** _Grunt_

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><p><strong>Date<strong>:_ 2186_

**Location**: _Battlefield_ _Earth_

Grunt watched in awe as the light come down from the heavens and hit the ground of the earth. He felt the ground beneath him shake and turned in time to dodge out of the way as a Reaper leg come down as it to crush him. Hefting his weapon he began to shoot at the husks that followed the Reaper. Suddenly he spotted a tiny human standing there, seeming to be caught in fears grasp. Charging forward he grabbed the tiny human child. Children; no matter the species, were sacred to his people because of what the genophage had done to the krogan people.

Suddenly the light washed over the Reaper and as Grunt curled into himself to protect the child from the oncoming husks; only to not be attacked. Looking up he watched as the yellow-red light stopped the hordes or husks and they vaporized as they self-destructed. That was when the Reapers themselves began to shake. Looking up at the one that was nearest Grunt watched as the half destroyed Reaper exploded. Those that were not heavily damaged began to take off and leave the planet. Those all throughout the galaxy did likewise; which confused many people at first, but Grunt knew who had done this. _Battlmaster!_ He thought.

That was when he heard the roar of victory from his fellow krogan and turians, followed by the high shrieks of asari and humans. They'd beaten the enemy. Now it was time to find their injured and go home.

Looking down he saw the child looking up at him with large eyes full of fear. "Did we win?" she asked.

"Yes, my Battlemaster won this war for you." He stated as he lifted the child up and put her on his hump. Picking up his weapon he began the long treck back to HQ. It was then that he heard a scream of fear. Looking for its source he saw an asari pointing upwards. Looking up he saw what had the asari's panties in a bunch.

The citadel was damaged beyond what he thought it would be. Large pieces began falling from the sky. The child on his hump began to whimper in fear at the thought of being crushed by the thousands of tons of steel. Making a mad dash for safety he and many others who followed his example, began flocking to where it would be safe. Grunt heard and felt the ground shake as the steel began crashing into the earth below it. Diving out of the way and running as if he had dozens of threshers after him, Grunt made a silent prayer to his ancestors for protection.

As he rounded another destroyed building he saw a shadow come over him and saw a piece of the citadel debris coming right for his position. Growling he pushed his legs to make himself go faster. The child on his hump whimpering and yelling "run faster" every so often. That was when he saw a sewer hole open. He was thankful it was a big hole and jumped it and kept running. There was a suddenly crash above his head and was even more thankful when the tunnel's roof didn't collapse.

Tired as hell, he felt his legs give out from beneath him. Activating his omni-tool he made contact with HQ. "Grunt where are you?" came Wrex's voice.

"In a sewer tunnel. The citadel is falling from the sky." He said as if Wrex didn't already know.

"We know." came the scared krogan's voice. "Can you get out?"

"I'm a krogan," he stated as if Wrex shouldn't even question that.

"Good. Shepard activated her location beacon, but it's a weak signal from where we are." Wrex said sounding worried.

"She's on the Citadel." Grunt said trying to figure out what he was supposed to do.

"The part that she's in is located near you." There was a pause. "In fact, it's right above your position."

Grunt looked up at the sewer pipes and growled. He grabbed the kid off of his hump and put her down on the ground. Pointing forward where he could see a light in the sewer tunnels roof he spoke. "That's your way out. Run, I've gotta got upward from this point and get my Battlemaster."

The child looked up at the krogan and then wrapped her arms around his one leg. "Thank-you for saving me Mr. Nice Krogan Man."

Grunt was about to correct her on his name when she took off for the exit. Looking upwards once more he pulled his shot gun and began shooting through the roof and debris and everything that was between him and his Battlemaster.

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><p><strong>M-Angel:<strong> Okay, so I've been working on this story on archiveofourown since April. It's a story that goes between _Before the Dawn_ and _After the Dawn_. Yes, I know that the After the Dawn has been on hiatus for a long time, but I will be finishing the story up before I bring on the last of the Hero series in December. So with that said, I hope you enjoy these tiny stories that happened before the After the Dawn.


	2. Chapter 2: Jack

**Chapter 2:** _ Jack_

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><p><strong>Date<strong>:_ 2186_

**Location**: _London - Earth_

Brown eyes opened to see the world for the first time in what seemed like hours, but were really only a few minutes. The eyes belonged to the woman name Jack, once called Subject Zero; but that was a long time ago. Jack had been in the middle of a biotic attack when she had been thrown off her feet by an explosion that had been caused by a piece of the something large falling behind her. She was now on the ground, ash falling around her. Marauders, banshees, and husks nowhere to be seen. The soldiers around her were looking up at something. So pushing herself up into a sitting position she looked up to see what had their attention, because if it was another reaper she was going to fucking kill Shepard for not holding her end of the bargain in killing these things up at the Citadel.

What she saw made her heart stop and stomach drop. The Citadel was in pieces and some of the larger ones were crashing into the surface of the earth, especially around London, where one had just fallen. _So that's what threw me off my feet onto my ass._ She thought as she suddenly saw a child crawl out of a hole just in front of the large piece of debris. _Shepard, you fucking idiot!_ She screamed in her mind._ You better not fucking die!_ She took off in a dead run, though along the way to the large piece of debris she saw several of her kids running towards her as she continued to run towards the piece of the Citadel. Once there she turned around and saw not only her kids, but several soldiers. "What the fu-hell are you all waiting for, start looking for survivors!" she turned and was face to face with Rodriguez who looked like she was about to cry at seeing her. "Don't." she said to the young girl. "There will be time for that crap later."

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><p>Hours pass as they made their way through the large pieces of the Citadel and all they'd found were small children still clinging to their dead parents hands. Jack would order somebody unlucky enough to be near her to take the children to the nearest medical center. They left the dead bodies behind, though she was smart enough to look for their names in the Omni-tools and tag the children with the last names of their parents or guardians so that they would be found by whoever was still alive in their families.<p>

They were halfway through the fourth large piece of debris when she came face to face with Grunt. She had first thought, because of how bad he looked and smelt that he was a surviving Marauder; but when she realized who he was she was both pissed and elated to see him. "You stupid take-bred Krogan!" she yelled at him. "I could've killed you." The remnants of a biotic attack vanished as she calmed down.

Grunt laughed. "Like to see you try." He turned to look at her group of soldiers and civilians. "Who are they?"

Looking back at the people she frowned. "Survivors who wouldn't do as they are told and soldiers helping the injured back to a medical field hospital. Why?" she raised an eyebrow at him and gave her best Shepard impression on that she gave a fuck.

"I've been told Shepard is in this piece of debris. I've been digging my way to her for…" he paused when one of the people got a bit a closer.

"Did you say Shepard?" came the woman's voice.

"And if he did?" Jack turned to her about to yell at the woman if she had something bad to say about Shepard; a woman she called a friend.

"She stopped the Reapers." was the reply. "I'm a nurse and if she's in here then she's probably very hurt. I can help."

"I'm an engineer; I can tell which ways are safe to her location." came a man's voice from behind the woman.

More people began telling Jack that they wanted to help find Shepard and help her. Soon Jack realized a little too late why Shepard hated big crowds, but loved helping people. Big crowds meant too much noise in one space, but helping people gave you a sense that you'd done something right. _Damn you Shepard! You've made me soft._ She groaned. "Shut the fu-hell up!" she looked at the three remaining kids from her group. Sanders would kill her if she cursed in front of them. Everybody went silent immediately. Turning to Grunt he gave her the location that he'd been given and the two, with the survivors began, making their way through the maze of broken pieces of the Citadel hoping against all odds that Commander Faith Shepard was still alive.

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><p><strong>M-Angel<strong>: I love Jack and really hope this chapter brought out her personality from the last game. She's just awesome! Review please?


	3. Chapter 3: Joker

**Chapter 3**: _Joker_

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><p>Eyes slowly opened and the world around came into focus very slowly. Sparks flying and spraying everywhere. Groaning Jeff "Joker" Moreau did a self once over to check what was broken, fractured, or sprained and found that he was surprisingly in perfect condition except for a little head ache. Touching his head he found a little blood on his forehead and cursed, he probably had a concussion. Considering everything they'd been through it was a bit surprising the see that this was the only thing wrong with himself. Straightening he turned over to EDI and saw her mech body slumped over the control board of the co-pilot seat. "EDI?" he said, but nothing came from her body or the speakers. His shoulders slumped a bit. She and he had talked about the possibility of the weapon begin one big EMP and they'd gone to great lengths to ensure she might survive it, which included a super expensive shielding unit that went around her AI Core and-.<p>

Jeff's head lifted from its downward position and he suddenly stood. Maybe she couldn't hear him because the speakers were broken. Maybe the AI Core was just fine. He half ran, half hobbled through the broken Normandy. Spotting crew members leaning against odd and end things. He even saw Karin bandaging Garrus up, and Javik looked like his usually pissy self; except now he was holding an unarmored arm in a sling. Going down the stairs and making his way to the AI Core, he found Tali already there trying to get the doors to open to it. Walking over to her he grabbed a metal pipe off of the floor and wedged it in between the doors while she pushed them apart. Finally, after what seemed like forever the doors were opened and both gasped at what they saw. The AI Core was completely undamaged.

Tali rushed over to the core itself and began doing a diagnostic of any damages and found one a list of what was damaged on the Normandy. "EDI, you okay?" Jeff asked; though no answer came, until suddenly an avatar appeared on a holo stand next to the core.

Instead of what more of the crew joked as a _talking vagina_, there stood a woman, about twenty-four inches tall. She had the build and look of the mech EDI had taken control of except this one had tan skin and light chocolate hair and green eyes. "Hello Jeff." She smiled a twinkle definitely in her eyes.

"I am happy you approve of this image." she replied. "I've been in the process of creating it for make months."

"I definitely approve." He smiled. "Give me the damage report."

She nodded. "My sensors on the outside are all offline and I cannot give you a full report on outside damages. Though I can give you a guess on what may need repairing."

"Okay." He sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Outside damages may include damages to the hull, engines, wings, tail, cockpit, and windows and outside shutters on the port observation deck." She paused as if thinking, but data lines were going up and down her body, so she was more likely processing the data that was coming through. So Jeff stayed quiet as she suddenly seemed to look at him and Tali. "Inside damages include the entire engine room deck, cargo bay one and two are not registering, sensors in Commander Shepard's room are stating that the roof has collapsed, the support beams on crew deck are registering with a high strain being put on them, however the secondary support beams are holding just fine; so we won't have to worry about that for now. Med Bay is registering to just fine, as is the labs and crew rooms." Pausing again she looked at more data. "The war room has been destroyed with wire from the roof panels collapsing in on it. Cockpit console is at a one hundred percent. Engines, unknown."

"Unknown?" Jeff asked anxiously.

"I cannot gain any information about whether or not the engines in the engine room are damages or not." He then turned back to Tali. "Shields are down to five percent. Weapon systems are down to ten percent power. Elevator system in down for now. Life support is at a sixty percent. Air system is damaged, but not beyond repair. Current air quality is at a fifty percent of what it is normally."

"Is that bad?" Jeff asked, not really knowing if it was or not.

EDI shook her avatar head. "No. As long as the crew stay in the area's they are they should be fine." She paused as she read more data. "Ninety percent of fires have been contained."

Jeff sighed and looked over to Tali. "Okay, this means we have to begin giving the crew the data they'll need to begin fixing things." Turning to EDI he spoke. "Give me a list of all major systems we need to leave whatever planet we're crash on. Also, see if you can bring up navigation so that we can find where the heck we are."

"What about you Joker?" Tali asked as she fidgeted with her fingers.

"First I'm going to med bay and get cleaned up, and you should get checked out too Tali. Them I'm going to go outside and see if I can find a clearing for the crew who are not injured and begin talking to them about their jobs. Then find out who the heck is actually in charge now that both Shepard and Kaiden are not on this ship." He stated as he turned his heel and began walking away with Tali not too far behind him.

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><p><strong>M-Angel<strong>: So what do ya'll think of these snippets so far?


	4. Chapter 4: Javik

**Chapter 4**: _Javik_

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><p>Javik sat in meditation by a stream trying to keep himself calm. After he had awoken in the med-bay, he'd found himself missing his right arm. As it turned out he had been hurt worse than he'd thought when the commander had brought the Normandy in to pick him and the quarian Tali'Zorah up from in the midst of the battle run towards the beam. He'd been pissed and actually pleaded to stay and finish the fight. <em>HE PLEADED! HIM! To a<em>…. he paused on his way of thinking. Even if the commander was of a lesser species she had proven time and again that she was far superior to most humans. Lifting his head he watched as the crew buried their dead. Too many had died during the crash. The pilot himself had been injured severely, but had managed to land in an area of the habitable planet that seemed to have everything they'd need, excluding dextro foods. The planet was undoubtedly a levo planet and that meant that the two dextro people on the ship were going to need to be very careful with their food supplies.

He then saw the blue hand of one of the asari commandos that they'd brought onto the ship because she'd been injured. He had heard from the human doctor that the asari hand awoken to the jarring of the ship as it broke atmosphere and had flung her body over the doctors just as a piece of metal ceiling panel had broken off. The young asari had been killed, leaving the doctor uninjured.

Standing he walked over to the turian Garrus who was saying some things as the dead were buried. He had just ended his speech as they began burying the dead bodies that were in the holes that'd been dug for the dead. "Vakarian." He said causing the turian to look towards him, he was grateful that nothing was said about his change of addressing the turian.

"Yes Javik?" he answered as he began to walk back towards the ship.

"I wish to scout forward around the area and perhaps find some game to hunt." He looked at the humans Vega and Cotez. "They could be useful." He nodded towards the two men.

Garrus stood back and looked at Javik. Was her hearing things? Javik was volunteering to help with something? he thought about that for a second. "Take Liara with you." He said which caused a scowl to appear on the ancients face and before the Prothean could object Garrus continued. "She's going to launch a small communications satellite and hopefully we'll be able to communicate with people outside this system."

Javik thought for a second before nodding. "Tell the asa-Liara to be ready in five." With that the ancient walked away and hoped this day would be productive however he already had a feeling that this was going to be a very long day.

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><p><strong>M-Angel<strong>: The next chapter will be longer! Promise!


	5. Chapter 5: Liara

**Chapter 5**: _Liara_

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><p>The morning had started under a saddened note with the burial of many friends who had died during the Normandy's crash, but as soon as Garrus had told Liara that she was given the go ahead with her and Tali's satellite she'd been excited, until she was told that she was going with Javik who was leading a scouting excursion into the jungle and silently she groaned.<p>

The man was annoying. At first she'd been excited about learning from a living Prothean, only for that excitement to be squashed the second he began talking about how primitive everybody was and that her words were worth nothing. She'd done everything in her power to prove him wrong, but at every turn he fought her and at every turn her opinion about his people soured.

Now she was stuck with him all afternoon. She turned her head as she looked at James and Cortez, they at least gave her some company and didn't snort at every word she spoke or had a horrible sense of humor by talking about how tasty a salarian liver would be right now.

"Hey blue," James began, "I'm curious, how do you expect the outside to hear us with this tiny thing?" he asked pointing to the satellite piece that he and Cortez had been talked into carrying.

She smiled. "Tali put some geth parts in it that'll allow the signal to excel through this system and theoretically give off a pulse that'll push it into the next system and with each pulse the signal gets stronger and stronger until it can reach one of our satellites that the galactic community uses or even one of the many spy satellites that every species has in or around their neighboring systems." She paused and then smiled. "However it also has a geth VI onboard that'll send us information about this planet and help give us a heads up when the weather is about to change."

"Huh." was his reply as they continued their trek through the jungle until several hours later they came to a stop at the top of a mountainous range.

Liara watched as the two men put the satellite down and she began to type in coordinates and linked it up to her omni-tool. Stepping back she pressed a button on her omni-tool and the satellite sped off up into the air until it could no longer be seen. Suddenly her omni-tool gave a beep. Looking down she watched as the satellite thrusters began to push it into a stable orbit. The satellite with the VI onboard began to send information back to her.

"Well?" Cortez asked

"It's working." She said as she looked back up at the two men. Turning she saw Javik had gone a bit further upon the hill of the mountain and was starring at something.

"What's it saying?" Vega asked as he walked over to her and starred at her arm.

"It's saying nothing right now." She said with a frown. "It's scanning the area we're in and it'll take about an hour for it to send the data back to me." she looked back at the men. "But it's working. It's also sending the signal that Tali programmed it with. So, hopefully we'll have a reply in the next week or two."

"I hope Sparks and Scars have enough food supplies to last 'em." He said as he went to join Javik.

As soon as the group had reached the ancient they found themselves starring at what Javik was looking at. Liara's eyes widened. "It's a Prothean ship!" she gasped as she looked over towards Javik. "This could be good news."

"Yes." he said seeming to come out of his daze and the three of them began to make their way down to the ancient ship.

It didn't take as long to get to the ancient Prothean ship as it had taken them to get up the mountain from the Normandy. Liara looked at the sheer size of the ship. It was six times the size of the Normandy and was armed from one end to the other. It was a gun metal color and tinted windows. On the right side; which is the side they were on were lettering that didn't look Prothean but rather…

"This ship was not made by my people but rather the Inusannon." He said this while looking at the texts on the side. He frowned as he looked closer. "But its design is just like my people's and how our ships were designed."

Liara looked at the metal spikes that were hanging outward towards them and watched Javik begin to climb them with ease followed by both James and Cortez and lastly herself. Upon hearing glass break above her, she looked up just in time to watch Javik vanish inside of the ship and soon they all followed him.

Liara looked around the room she'd pulled herself into and followed the men as they looked out of the windows on the other side and gasped. Cryogenic pods lined the entire insides of the ship and each glowed a warm green color, indicating that every last one was active. It was then that a holographic display became active and a low hum was heard followed by the holographic display to change its form until Javik suddenly growled and pulled out his Prothean gun and readied it to blast whatever the thing was.

The being that had taken form looked like a small bee-like creature about the size of a krogan hand. "Do not attack me." it said. "I am free of indoctrination, as I can sense that you are as well."

"Javik?" Liara asked as she saw that the Prothean was not letting his guard down.

"It's a Zha'til." He growled.

"You are only partially correct." It said. "I was created by my masters the Zha, however, unlike the others who seized control of our masters bodies and then altered their genetic material at the deepest of levels and then turning them into the swams of monsters for the reapers to use; I warned my masters of what was happening and we began to plan together." It paused as it brought up the historical data and allowed them to see video's that were recorded. "Read and listen and if afterwards you still do not believe my words, then I will accept my fate; but do spare the children. They are the last of their species and I have been protecting them and hiding them here until the Reapers are no longer a problem."

"How did you compensate the power strain that these pods surely are causing on the ship?" Liara asked as curiosity was getting the better of her. After seeing so many Prothean pods with dead ancients in them and none, but Javik surviving there had to be an answer as to why these pods were still active.

"I drilled to the core and this ship is now powered by the core of this planet." It stated as Liara began to sift through the thousands of vids and data that had been left open on one of the nearby consoles and suddenly gasped.

"Javik, there are Protheans onboard!" she looked at him and watched all of his eyes widen.

"How many-"he was interrupted by the AI.

"437,987 Protheans are currently aboard. 198,086 are in cryo-pods. Leaving 239,901 in pre-fertilized eggs that are in cryo-tanks." It said. "There are also 623,876 Zha on board, with 98,256 in cryo-pods and 525,620 in per-fertilized eggs that are in cryo-tanks." It paused. "Should I continue?" It asked.

"Why did you warn your masters?" Javik asked still not trusting the AI.

"Because something wasn't right with the offer that we were being given." It said. "As organics say, _Something smelt wrong_. So I told my masters what was going on and most listened, especially the scientists. However, I was not fast enough in my warning and millions of my masters were killed." The AI said this sounding truly sad. "Therefore with what we had left of our people and choosing that the younger ones who had yet to be implanted with AI components, the Zha decided to take me from them and make me the Liberian who would protect the young ones until order was restored." He looked at Javik. "Then your kind got into the mess and got noticed by the Reapers. I decided on my own to begin collecting the young of every species that was known at the time and gathered every egg that was deemed acceptable by the categories that I'd been left with and within fifteen years after the war began I was able to hide the young somewhere no reaper could find them. It was a long journey, but we managed just fine. I never lost a single child." It paused and turned its holographic image towards Liara. "Then your species came into the system and I began using a shielding unit that I had yet to use. Basically it made me invisible to your scanning devices. I've had to use this shield many times to ensure I would not be detected. I then sent out my own scanning devices and began listening to your comm. satellites and listened to everything that was going on outside this system. I would've released the young to this planet and allowed the fertilized eggs to grow in their tanks, that was until Faith Shepard began telling people about the Reapers and that they were coming back." He paused. "The species of the galaxy did not listen to her then, and even as humans vanished from colonies her words were yet again silenced. It wasn't until recently when the Reapers had arrived that the galaxy's races listened and many were too late."

"Maybe so," Liara began, "but we're defeated them."

"As far as you know." The AI shot back. "I've been monitoring your ship as soon as it came in and crashed. You have an AI onboard, but she isn't rebooting correctly." There was a pause. "I have the necessary components that'll allow her to reboot to how she was when she shut down."

"What do you want in return?" Vega asked his assault rifle still pointed at the console where the AI was.

"I want data concerning the Reapers." It replied. "When your people leave, I want you to send me data on whether or not the Reapers have been dealt with."

"And what will you do with this data?" Cortez asked finally deciding to ask a question of his own.

"If they have been and are dead, I will begin the process of releasing the young from their pods, and allowing the eggs to grow and let them evolve their own way through life. I will only ask that nobody be allowed to come back here until the young ones have evolved enough to have their own starships. No outside influence." It paused as its image shifted to a sequence of numbers. "However, if the data you send says that the Reapers are still a threat, I will ask that not only do you never return here; but that you lose the data that'll tell where this planet is."

"Sounds reasonable." Liara deducted "We'll have to talk to Garrus." Her eyes drifted towards the AI's image. "He'd our defacto leader right now." She explained.

"I do not mind." It replied. "Also, I noticed that your ship is not space worthy. I have supplies that you may use…free of charge. You may also use the shuttle in the shuttle bay to go back and forth from this ship. The corridor behind you will lead directly towards the shuttle bay area." It paused. "Now please leave." with that the image and AI's presence vanished from the room, the consoles with the data and vids; however, stayed online.

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><p><strong>M-Angel<strong>: There, I've posted all the chapters I've written so far. Now I'll have to finish this story. :wink:


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